GM’s Note: It’s about three weeks since I actually ran this scenario so this is going to be both brief and less specific than my usual logs.

The date was February 25, 2075 and the event was the Investiture of Duchess Adriana Rukin. Her father, having left his title to his eldest child, was killed in a car bomb during the rebellion along with her elder brother. This left the title to her. This caused no end of strife between her and her mother, Evonne, (primarily because Adriana’s human metatype didn’t meet with the normal standards set by the aristocracy).

But regardless of the bad blood within the family, the time had come to invest Adriana formally with the responsibilities of her inheritance upon her twenty-fifth birthday. The actual investiture was a simple affair between Adriana, officials of the Tír government, and a bevy of lawyers but a few days after that, Evonne had prepared a fête in her daughter’s honor.

Knowing it would anger her mother, Adriana invited the rest of our protagonists to the party as well, though Octan was unavailable. Upon arrival, and being scanned for weapons and active magical signatures, the herald announced that her grace had arrived along with … friends … and the group moved into the room.

It was filled with a variety of the Tír elite, including two Princes: Rex and Jake Foster (the sasquatch and an ork respectively). Both moved quickly to congratulate the new Duchess along and wished her well along with all the requisite photographs. Adriana and Evonne had there moment as the other guests pretended not to pay attention and then, for much of the rest of the afternoon, proceeded to ignore each other.

Olympia, feeling a bit out of place with her exposed augmentations, oddly found herself entertaining some of the children that had attended. The kids, rather than being put off by her chrome, were intrigued and curious. Arial spent her time effectively schmoozing with the elites of the Tír throughout the party making contact with those who might one day be either employers or targets.

More interesting were the brothers Pliskin though not necessarily for their own actions but rather for the interest that Prince Jake Foster took in them. It’s hard enough as a Prince, harder still as an ork Prince, and Prince Foster thought it advantageous to shake the hands of the only other two orks in the room–at least those not wearing staff uniforms for the rental hall and catering company–and spend a bit of time talking with them.

The afternoon was primary a smooth one. There was one political altercation between Erik Lombard and Stephen Kurtz, two guests with opposing political points of view and members of the Rooters and Progressives respectively. Raised voices were quickly hushed and the duo spent the rest of the party willingly separated.

That is, until, a cry went out in the room. As everyone turned to its source, they saw Erik holding a gushing neck wound collapsing into the arms of his companion, Luke Baker. Adriana rushed to help, but saw that his wound was beyond her ability to heal. Others attempted first aid but it was not to be and Erik died. The Constabulary was quickly summoned and everyone was detained for questioning.

In the meantime, the team contacted Octan who was able to hack the building’s systems from offsite and acquire a copy of the various camera feeds for the party. Once the questioning began, it became clear that the attacker was not Stephen, even though he seemed the logical choice considering their earlier fight. Instead, the attacker was described as an average human male with no real distinguishing features. Conflicting witness reports meant that there was no clear picture of who did the deed, but the team hoped they might gain more insight by reviewing the tape.

Unfortunately, the tape raised more questions than it answered. The assailant was obviously appeared from no where on the video feed behind Erik. Grabbing a sharp knife from a table, he approached the target, did the deed, and then moved quickly back toward the wall where, while most were staring at Erik, he disappeared again. Awakened guests, including those in the party, had not seen anything on the Astral plane prior to the attack and the spirits used as magical security reported the same.

Looking deeper into Erik’s profile, they discovered that he was actually running for public office for the Rooters. His opponent, Maria Kaplan, was a member of the Progressive party, but she was not in attendance at the party. Mystified, the party had little to go on and, in truth, it was the Constabulary’s problem to deal with. When released, they went back to their lives.